A “mountain-size” asteroid is passing by the Earth right now, and we’d all be able to see it if the snow weren’t ruining our lives.

Asteroid 2004 BL86 is about 550 meters wide and is passing by the Earth at about three times the distance to the Moon today. If you happen to live somewhere in America where you aren’t being slowly buried alive by flying ice, you should be able to easily see it with a telescope or maybe even binoculars, but it’s probably too bright for that. In the UK, though, it should be dark enough to make binoculars work from just after 4PM to about 4:52PM.

2004 BL86 isn’t terribly close to the planet—manyasteroidshavecomemuchcloser—but it will be the largest to pass by until 2027. In August of that year, 1999 AN10, a kilometer-wide rock, will pass by as close as 19,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. As close as that may be, it could still also pass farther away than the moon depending on how the orbital calculations shake out, and its chances of hitting the Earth are effectively zero. It should still make a pretty awesome sight depending on whether we’re still living in a frozen, white-skyed wasteland.

Meanwhile, scientists in locations clear of weather concerns are excited to study 2004 BL86 as it passes by. Lance Benner from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory told Discovery News, “For objects that get this close, that are this large, the radar observations are really analogous to a spacecraft flyby in terms of the caliber of the data that we can get.”

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/asteroid-flyby-snow-ruined/feed/0NASA Audit Concludes They’re Not Prepared to Protect Us From Asteroids or Even Detect Them - How long does it take to assemble a ragtag team of retired astronauts, anyway?http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-not-ready-for-asteroids/
http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-not-ready-for-asteroids/#commentsWed, 17 Sep 2014 21:43:46 +0000http://www.themarysue.com/?p=244031

You know what we haven’t done in a while? Found an asteroid that’s about to fly uncomfortably close to Earth. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not out there, as a fewclosepassesshowedearlier this year, and a government audit has concluded that NASA’s program to detect asteroids and protect the world from devastation is way behind schedule.

NASA spends around $1 million of its total $40 million yearly budget on detection of asteroids of 140 meters in diameter or greater, but they’re behind schedule as far as cataloguing them. The plan is to have 90% of these flying death balls catalogued by 2020, but the audit reads, “While the program has discovered, categorized, and plotted the orbits of more than 11,000 NEOs [near-Earth objects] since 1998, NASA estimates that it has identified only 10 percent of all asteroids 140 meters and larger and will not meet the 2020 deadline.”

Only 10%? That could be why previously unseen asteroids keep sneaking up and giving us jump scares like they’re freaking walkers. The audit goes on to cover the reasons the program is lagging behind, saying that it’s all handled under “a single program executive who manages a loosely structured, non-integrated conglomerate of research activities with little coordination, insufficient program oversight, and no established milestones to track progress.”

Luckily, NASA at least spends a larger 7% of its budget on methods of destroying or deflecting an incoming space rock, because Bruce Willis and Aerosmith don’t come cheap. They also concur with the audit and have proposed corrective actions to help get things back on track, which is comforting—unless you’re an asteroid, because then our best aging action stars are coming for you.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-not-ready-for-asteroids/feed/0NASA Teamed With Kerbal Space Program for Playable Asteroid Redirect Mission - Let's give the Moon a moon!http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-teamed-with-kerbal/
http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-teamed-with-kerbal/#commentsWed, 02 Apr 2014 15:04:00 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=200264Kerbal Space Program. They've teamed up with NASA to add the mission to the game, and you can play it right now.]]>

NASA has a plan to redirect an asteroid and park it in lunar orbit. They want to give the Moon a moon! It sounds a little far-fetched, but we’re completely on board, and so are the folks at Kerbal Space Program. They’ve teamed up with NASA to add the mission to the game, and you can play it right now.

The developers of the game, Squad, released this trailer for the mission:

That looks like the most fun you could possibly have simulating a space mission!

I’ve known about Kerbal Space Program as an idea for a while now, but haven’t paid it much attention. Now I’m realizing what a mistake that was, because this game looks incredibly fun. If anyone needs me for the rest of the day, I’ll be capturing asteroids.

There’s a lot going on at SXSW including this booth by NASA to let tradeshow attendees know that space is still out there. We took a quick look at the booth and learned about how NASA is planning on protecting us all from asteroids.

Image title

this is some kind of spaceship or something.

We’ll have more on the chipsat program soon, but the basic plan is to launch hundreds of these tiny satellites into orbit and use them to better track, monitor, and gauge the size of potentially dangerous asteroids. NASA has their sights set on any object 30 meters or larger, though asteroids even smaller than that can still be dangerous as the world saw when a 17-20 meter asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia.

If you want a better look at that 3D-printed asteroid, here’s a quick video with the NASA rep explaining how chipsats will more accurately map the electromagnetic field of these objects than has ever been done before.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-sxsw-booth/feed/0NASA Wants YOU to Help Detect Asteroids, and They’re Willing to Pay - Do the Math. Save the world. http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-asteroid-hunters/
http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-asteroid-hunters/#commentsMon, 10 Mar 2014 16:58:33 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=196937

Grab your no. 2 pencils and Texas Instruments! NASA announced today that they will be awarding $35,000 in prizes between now and August to civilians who develop asteroid-detecting algorithms. NASA, I’m flattered that you would ask, but honestly I’d prefer if you had this whole “preventing planetary extinction” thing down already.

The press release coincides with NASA’s SXSW panel today, “Are We Smarter Than The Dinosaurs?”, in which contest representatives will be discussing the Asteroid Grand Challenge and NASA’s program to increase detection capabilities and eliminate threats. The panel will also introduce the Asteroid Data Hunter Contest in hopes that civilian engagement can increase the interest and innovation focused on global problems, i.e. preventing us all from getting smooshed to hell by space junk.

NASA’s statement explains that the Data Hunter contest series needs participants to develop improved algorithms for detecting asteroids using ground telescopes and states that winning algorithms must “increase the detection sensitivity, minimize the number of false positives, ignore imperfections in the data, and run effectively on all computer systems.”

Says Jenn Gustetic, Prizes and Challenges Program Executive and co-presenter at SXSW, “Protecting the planet from the threat of asteroid impact means first knowing where they are. By opening up the search for asteroids, we are harnessing the potential of innovators and makers and citizen scientists everywhere to help solve this global challenge.”

So basically, every time I ever said math wouldn’t be useful after high school, I was an idiot on the brink of extinction.

The contest won’t be open until March 17th, but if you’re a GoodwillHunting-type undiscovered genius eager to flex your Math skillz, you can go ahead and register here.

For my part, I got out of the algorithm game a while ago, but I could be convinced to come out of retirement for one last big asteroid haul. Space Detective Cox: Asteroid Hunter has a lovely ring to it.

[UPDATE 3:46PM EST] You can watch the asteroid’s flyby live thanks to Slooh Community Observatory. Only a few minutes to go!

While you were peacefully sleeping last night, NASA announced that they had detected a 100 foot-wide asteroid that will fly closer to Earth than the Moon today around 1 pm PST and 4 pm EST. NASA predicts that the asteroid will pass us without event, but just in case they’re wrong, you might want to knock out that bucket list in the next 5 hours.

However, as disconcerting as that announcement may be, there’s actually no justification for apocalyptic panic. Probably. As NASA wrote yesterday on their website,

As happens about 20 times a year with current detection capabilities, a known asteroid will safely pass Earth Wednesday closer than the distance from Earth to the moon.

So even though recent media coverage might make near-earth objects seem like a more frequent occurrence, that’s just because NASA’ s ability to detect asteroids and other space junk has improved, which is a good thing. Their ability to disseminate scary statistics has also increased, which is arguably not so great.

NASA’s Jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California detected the asteroid using both space and ground-based telescopes as part of the The Near-Earth Objects Observation Program, or Spaceguard.

This particular Near-Earth Object has been named 2014 DX110, and at its closest point to Earth, it will miss us by 217,000 miles—that’s 220,00 miles closer than our average distance to the moon, and about a jillion miles closer than I would like.

Of course, most asteroids pose virtually no danger to Earth; they’re just a disconcerting reminder of how little understanding or control we have over the Universe. T minus 5 hours, people. Just go about your day.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/asteroid-closer-than-moon-today/feed/1Guys, We Lost an Asteroid the Size of Three Football Fields. Feeling Super Secure Right Now - They're calling it Moby Dick now. I'm hoping they just don't know how that book ends.http://www.themarysue.com/lost-moby-dick-asteroid/
http://www.themarysue.com/lost-moby-dick-asteroid/#commentsTue, 18 Feb 2014 22:21:21 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=194501

Don’t worry, you’re not going to get hit by asteroid 2000 EM26. Still, it’s a little unsettling that it was supposed to fly by last night, and no one has any idea where it is. The universe is a big place, and it’s far more likely to be found farther away from us than closer, but it’s a little disconcerting that we were so wrong about its trajectory.

Slooh Community Observatory held a talk about asteroid tracking and a live viewing as the massive asteroid was set to fly by the Earth at somewhere around 8.8 lunar distances yesterday, so it was probably pretty embarrassing when the asteroid didn’t show up to its own party. You can still watch the live coverage and asteroid discussion here:

Its magnitude should have been 15.4, which would have left it easily visible to telescopes, so it’s unlikely that we just missed it. More likely, unfortunately, is that we didn’t have enough information about the asteroid, which was only seen for a period of nine days 14 years ago, to accurately predict its trajectory. Luckily, 8.8 lunar distances isn’t that far in astronomical terms, but for an object that’s only about 300 yards across, it leaves plenty of room for error.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can just let it go completely, and Slooh has called upon amateur astronomers to join the search and try to find it, which instills me with confidence. Generally, when you lose something, you should try to look in the last place you remember having it, but when that place is space, it’s a little less helpful.

In its own way, 2000 EM26 did a pretty bang up job of highlighting the need to continue and expand our observations of asteroids, so at least the point of Slooh’s coverage still hit home. The Slooh Observatory Director, Captain Ahab Paul Cox, said:

Discovering these Near Earth Objects isn’t enough. As we’ve seen with 2000 EM26, all the effort that went into its discovery is worthless unless follow­up observations are made to accurately determine their orbits for the future. And that’s exactly what Slooh members are doing, using the robotic telescopes at our world­-class observatory site to accurately measure the precise positions of these asteroids and comets.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/lost-moby-dick-asteroid/feed/0We’re 10x More Likely to Get Hit By Meteors Than Previously Thought (And Also One’s Heading for Us Right Now) - Hooray!http://www.themarysue.com/10x-meteors/
http://www.themarysue.com/10x-meteors/#commentsFri, 14 Feb 2014 22:57:56 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=194206House of Cards, right?]]>

Okay everybody, don’t freak out or anything, but there’s a “potentially hazardous” asteroid that’s coming kiiiiiinda close to the Earth. Oh, and also? Scientists now think we’re about ten times more likely to get hit by foreign space objects than we originally thought. But hey, at least you have the weekend to finish House of Cards, right?

According to some number crunching by Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario, who analyzed about 20 years’ worth of data on meteor airbursts (including the recent meteor strike on Russia), meteor collisions are a lot more common than anticipated by previous calculations. Now, we’re not talking a wipe-out-the-dinosaurs level catastrophe or anything — such an event could only possibly occur every 100 million years. But smaller, yet still destructive collisions might be taking place about every 36 years or so, according to the graph over at Popular Mechanics.

Which is bad news to be hearing at this exact point because a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) called 2000 EM26, which has an an estimated diameter of three football fields (or 270 meters, for you metric types), is currently speeding towards Earth at a rate of 27,000 mph. Wheeeee.

Fortunately for us, the robotic telescopic service Slooh will cover the meteor from the Canary Islands on the below livestream as it makes its closest descent toward Earth’s atmosphere on Monday night. The live broadcast will be lead by astronomer Bob Berman, Slooh technical director Paul Cox, and Dr. Mark Boslough, who will be answering questions from Twitter using the hashtag #asteroid.

So check back here on the 17th around 9pm EST to hear more about the meteor. You know, provided it hasn’t hit us earlier than expected and doomed us all to a fiery death.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/10x-meteors/feed/2It’s the Return of the Geekosystem Podcast! Here’s Episode 4 “Reboot” - We're back, and we'll be posting every week even if it's just Glen talking to himself in the booth.http://www.themarysue.com/geekosystem-podcast-episode-4/
http://www.themarysue.com/geekosystem-podcast-episode-4/#commentsTue, 22 Oct 2013 21:21:22 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=181504Reboot.]]>

The Geekosystem Podcast is back! There’s a bit of a change in the lineup, but join Senior Editor Glen Tickle as he’s joined again by Associate Editor Victoria McNally and brand new Associate Editor Dan Van Winkle to discuss asteroids, Editors’ Picks, and a heated discussion about the reboot of Reboot.

In this episode the Geekosystem team argues about discusses the story of a newly discovered asteroid that just missed us, and is looping back around in 2032. NASA can’t say for sure that we’re safe, but they’re not 100% on that yet.

Not willing to settle for uncertainty, we started hashing a plan of our own to protect Earth from asteroids. That plan involves developing a Superman clone, which can only be accomplished if we first get a Wonder Woman movie. We’d like to say that makes more sense in context, but we’re not really sure that’s true.

For your Editors Picks this week, Victoria thinks everyone should check out the new Pokemon X/Y games. Dan recommends the book John Dies at the End, and Glen can’t get enough of Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements” song.

We have some strong opinions about how the folks rebooting Reboot should reboot Reboot. We argue about what the show needs to do to succeed. Glen geeks out about the Thundercats reboot to an absurd degree and makes bold claims about Game of Thrones. Dan steps in as the resident nunchuck expert, and the team finally comes together and agrees on what Reboot needs to do, albeit in a very roundabout way.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/geekosystem-podcast-episode-4/feed/0Decomissioned NASA Craft Brought Back For One Last Job: Like Taken But With Asteroids - You know, if WISE were our father and asteroids wanted to sell us as sex slaves.http://www.themarysue.com/wise-asteroid-mission/
http://www.themarysue.com/wise-asteroid-mission/#commentsThu, 22 Aug 2013 13:15:47 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=175875

NASA spacecraft Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has in the past discovered and characterized thousands of asteroids before being put in “hibernation,” which is a fairly terrifying euphemism. But next month it’s coming back for one last mission: identifying potentially dangerous asteroids, that will then be… “relocated.”

The mission, which WISE has no choice but to accept, entails discovering and characterizing near Earth objects (NEOs), which are basically means rocks within 45 million kilometers of Earth. Remember, this is NASA; they have a different definition of the word “near” than do most of us. NASA believes WISE will find 150 previously undiscovered NEOs and be able to characterize an additional 2,000 by size, albedo (how much light they reflect), and thermal properties.

Some of these tasks may end up being part of NASA’s new asteroid initiative: to identify, capture, and relocate an asteroid, which has never been done before. In addition to, you know, making sure we don’t end up like the dinosaurs, NASA also hopes to learn enough to be able to send a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025.

They anticipate WISE being a real asset, as during its last mission the craft took about 7500 images a day, made the most accurate survey yet of NEOs, and discovered 21 comets, 34,000 asteroids, and 135 NEOs. NASA has said: “The team is ready and after a quick checkout, we’re going to hit the ground running.” Did that give anyone else chills?

NASA calls the whole thing “an excellent example of how we are leveraging existing capabilities across the agency,” I call it “retired badass saves the world.” Your move, NASA.

Potential asteroid collisions have been big in the news lately, and as a nation we’re are more afraid of them than we’ve ever been — possibly because in the past we used to be afraid of things like polio and getting murdered by bandits. Is stopping an asteroid even possible? AsapSCIENCE requested the help of our friend Bill Nye, whom you might remember from being the Science Guy, to explain things to us.

As much as I loved the neatly polished children’s program of my youth, watching Nye in a more unfiltered setting is pretty fun. Not that he’s made any of us feel better about an inevitable doom from above with his “just ‘cuz it’s unlikely doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal” attitude. Gee, thanks, Bill!

The Asteroids Movie that has been in the works for several years now, jumping from writer to writer, but firmly under the production of Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, appears to have a basic description now. Hollywood was able to inject something beyond exploding asteroids into the Atari game that revolves around the simple objective of shooting asteroids, even when di Bonaventura himself admitted that plot-wise, "there's nothing to the game." What's more, the film may not be the massive piece of destruction that was expected.

]]>

The Asteroids movie that has been in the works for several years now, jumping from writer to writer, but firmly under the production of Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, appears to have a basic description now. Hollywood was able to inject something beyond exploding asteroids into the Atari game that revolves around the simple objective of shooting asteroids, even when di Bonaventura himself admitted that plot-wise, “there’s nothing to the game.” What’s more, the film may not be the massive piece of destruction that was expected.

Given di Bonaventura’s work on films like Transformers and G.I. Joe, it seemed likely that the movie would be focused on disaster or action, with some plot built around a preexisting product. According to di Bonaventura in a recent interview about RED 2, however,

“It’s not a disaster movie, yeah, if we’re successful at getting it made. It’s much more of a space opera. It’s like a great sci-fi movie if we get it done right. It is not at all what people think it is. People think, ‘Oh, the asteroid’s gonna hit the earth,’ and I have no interest in doing that. That’s been done exceedingly well before. No, this takes place in an asteroid belt, the whole movie.”

It seems very likely there will still be action, given that di Bonaventura is producing and that writers including Man of Steel’sDavid S. Goyer have worked on the film. All that this really confirms is that Asteroids will not be a disaster movie, but the confusing list of involved writers, including Harold Pinter protégé Jez Butterworth, maintains the air of mystery cultivated by the fact that the original game, while enjoyable, featured a white triangle as its protagonist. Still, back in 2009 the film was said to be about “two brothers…who have to go through a seminal experience to figure out their relationship, against this huge backdrop,” and was reported to involve aliens. If this description is up to date, we do have some idea of the story behind the film. Di Bonaventura’s perspective on the name of the film supports the theory that, if nothing else, it will be dramatic,

“It just seems like that’s big. Like, what? Asteroids? That’s big. What’s going on up there? When I look at that project, that’s what I think about it, is I think about the scale of it and I think about the possibility of it.”

Of course, all the speculation amounts to little without confirmation that the movie will actually be made, which remains to be seen given the amount of time it has spent in script purgatory. Below you can see Screen Rant’s Perri Nemiroff question di Bonaventura about Asteroids, and about his other work in progress, Space Invaders.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/asteroids-movie-space-opera/feed/2NASA Announces Asteroid Grand Challenge, Wants Your Help in Stopping Them - Well, as much help as you can provide, anyway.http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-asteroid-initiative/
http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-asteroid-initiative/#commentsWed, 19 Jun 2013 19:01:09 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=156294NASA wants you to do your part in stopping asteroids from destroying the planet. On Tuesday, the space agency announced the Asteroid Grand Challenge, a wide-ranging initiative aimed at tracking and eliminating asteroids that could impact the Earth. To achieve its goals, NASA is reaching out to the public for help.]]>

Hop into your triangle-shaped spaceship and start shooting dots at drifting polygons, because NASA wants you to do your part in stopping asteroids from destroying the planet. On Tuesday, the space agency announced the Asteroid Grand Challenge, a wide-ranging initiative aimed at tracking and eliminating asteroids that could impact the Earth. To achieve its goals, NASA is reaching out to the public for help.

NASA issued a Request For Information (RFI) to the public seeking outside participants to “help NASA refine the Asteroid Redirect Mission concept, formulate plans for flight systems development, and gather ideas for broadening participation in the mission and planetary defense.” At the Asteroid Grand Challenge’s press conference, Tom Kalil, the White House’s deputy director for technology and innovation, said that citizen scientists would play a role in addition to private organizations answering the call. “I think citizens are going to be able to make contributions to solving these problems in ways we haven’t seen before,” Kalil said. He explained that “finding asteroid threats, and having a plan for dealing with them, needs to be an all-hands-on-deck effort.” Responses to the request are due on July 18th.

NASA’s announcement defined Grand Challenges as “ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology.” Kalil compared the challenge to John F. Kennedy setting a goal to land on the Moon or the Human Genome Project’s effort to map our DNA.

NASA wants to locate all asteroids that could endanger Earth in enough time for us to fully prepare to deal with them. “While we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near the Earth’s orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth,” said Deputy Administrator of NASA Lori Garver.

The initiative’s most ambitious objective is to capture a near-Earth asteroid using an unmanned spacecraft and redirect it into a stable orbit where humans can land on it and conduct research. This mission could be a dry run for defending Earth from asteroids by changing their paths, and may provide valuable information about the makeup of asteroids and the formation of the solar system. Though NASA has talked about it for a while, this part of the initiative could be beyond their reach; they still need to convince Congress to dole out $100 million just to get them started on the asteroid mission, and it could cost billions to complete.

Kalil underscored the significance of this project by quoting Congressman George Brown, a former chairman of the House’s space oversight committee. “If some day in the future we discover well in advance that an asteroid that’s big enough to cause a mass extinction is about to hit the Earth, and we alter the course of the asteroid so it doesn’t hit us, it will be one of the most important events in all of human history.”

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-asteroid-initiative/feed/1An Even Better Look at Asteroid 1998 QE2 and Its Moon - Okay, yeah, that's no space station.http://www.themarysue.com/asteroid-1998-qe2-moon-video/
http://www.themarysue.com/asteroid-1998-qe2-moon-video/#commentsSat, 08 Jun 2013 17:00:44 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=154824asteroid 1998 QE2 gave the Earth a buzz just over a week ago. Upon close examination, it was determined that 1998 QE2 actually had a moon of its own. That's not unheard of, though we didn't know 1998 QE2 had one. Some images were combined to form a video of the binary group shortly after discovery, but now an even better look at the two has been created thanks to scientists working with the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California.]]>

As you may recall, asteroid 1998 QE2 gave the Earth a buzz just over a week ago. Upon close examination, it was determined that 1998 QE2 actually had a moon of its own. That’s not unheard of, though we didn’t know 1998 QE2 had one. Some images were combined to form a video of the binary group shortly after discovery, but now an even better look at the two has been created thanks to scientists working with the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California.

The video, which you can watch just below, is a composite of 55 images collected at Goldstone on June 1, 2013. Each one of the images accounts for about five minutes of data collection, so we’re looking at roughly 4.6 hours worth of radar data. Check it out:

At the time these images were grabbed, 1998 QE2 was around 3.75 million miles from Earth, and each pixel equates to about 125 feet. Thanks to these snazzy radar images, and careful analysis, we know a lot more about the asteroid and its moon than we did previously.
For example, the primary body rotates once every five hours, and has a diameter that’s approximately 1.9 miles. The moon, on the other hand, completes an orbit of the primary body once every 32 hours, and is approximately 2,000 feat wide. Similar to our own moon, it has a synchronous rotation — the same patch of surface is always shown to the main body.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/asteroid-1998-qe2-moon-video/feed/0Bill Nye, Lori Garver and More Answer Your Asteroid Questions During Google Hangout This Afternoon - The White House's latest 'We The Geeks' Hangout will either put you at ease about asteroid strikes or utterly terrify you. Let's find out which together!http://www.themarysue.com/we-the-geeks-asteroids/
http://www.themarysue.com/we-the-geeks-asteroids/#commentsFri, 31 May 2013 17:25:36 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=153641At 2pm EDT this afternoon, you can join Bill Nye, NASA's own Lori Garver, astronaut Ed Lu, IAU astronomer Jose Luis Galache and aspiring asteroid miner Peter Diamandis of Planetary Resources for a round table discussion on all things asteroids -- from how we could harvest them for minerals to what happens if we have to try and dodge one.]]>

Is it just us, or does it seem like asteroids are coming an awful lot closer to hitting Earth than they used to? For what it’s worth, that’s not the case — we’re just better at detecting asteroids than we used to be. That means we’re learning all sorts of cool things about these magnificent space rocks, like which ones may harbor valuable minerals we could one day exploit, and which ones could potentially wipe human civilization as we know it off the map in the coming decades.

Today, you’ve got a chance to get caught up on all the latest news and science on asteroids courtesy of We The Geeks, a Google Hangout presented by the White House. At 2pm EDT this afternoon, you can join Bill Nye, NASA’s own Lori Garver, astronaut Ed Lu, IAU astronomer Jose Luis Galache and aspiring asteroid miner Peter Diamandis of Planetary Resources for a round table discussion on all things asteroids — from how we could harvest them for minerals to what happens if we have to try and dodge one.

You can tune in and listen this afternoon, and we hope you’ll stay with us to watch what promises to be an enlightening chat. Until then, though, you’ve still got time to get in on the action yourself. If you have a question about asteroids you want answered, tweet it or post it to Google+ with the hashtag #WeTheGeeks. The panel may take up your question, leaving you with the lifelong giddy thrill of having Bill Nye respond to something you said.

We’ll have the hangout embedded here so you can watch when it goes live at 2pm EDT. Until then, please accept this video representation of our plans for an asteroid strike as a placeholder. Like all of our best plans, this one relies heavily on having a spaceship and ends in us exploding.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/we-the-geeks-asteroids/feed/0Asteroid 1998 QE2 Has Its Own Moon - Radar data shows that the asteroid flying by Earth today isn't travelling alone.http://www.themarysue.com/1998-qe2-moon/
http://www.themarysue.com/1998-qe2-moon/#commentsFri, 31 May 2013 12:30:30 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=153591Yesterday, NASA officials learned that 1.7 mile-wide 1998 QE2 -- that's as big as nine cruise ships, to use an unexpected but largely accepted metric -- isn't travelling alone. The enormous asteroid is bringing its own smaller moon along for the ride, which you can get a look at in the video below.]]>

1998 QE2, the huge asteroid passing near Earth today, has yet to make its closest approach, but researchers are already using radar to make some surprising discoveries about the space rock as it hurtles through our neck of the cosmic woods. Case in point? Yesterday, NASA officials learned that 1.7 mile-wide 1998 QE2 — that’s as big as nine cruise ships, to use an unexpected but largely accepted metric — isn’t travelling alone. The enormous asteroid is bringing its own smaller moon along for the ride, which you can get a look at in the video below.

While 1998 QE2′s travel companion is news to researchers, it’s not unprecedented, either. Binary asteroids aren’t entirely uncommon — researchers estimate that up to 16% of asteroids bigger than 2000 feet around travel in systems of two or even three objects locked in orbit. Considering the impressive size of 1998 QE2, it’s not entirely shocking that the stone has picked up a hanger-on.

According to NASA’s radar data, QE2′s moon is nothing to sneeze at, either. While it may look puny in comparison to the rock it’s orbiting, the satellite itself is 2,000 feet wide, though it’s worth noting that’s a preliminary estimate based on the first available data, and thus subject to change as researchers get a better look at it later today.

Want to learn more about today’s flyby and asteroids in general? Be sure to stay tuned for the latest We The Geeks Google Hangout, where the White House will bring together the likes of astronaut Ed Lu, NASA administrator Lori Garver, all-purpose Science Guy Bill Nye and others to talk about asteroids and the work NASA and other entities — like aspiring asteroid mining firm Planetary Resources — are doing to learn more about them. We’ll be hosting the Hangout here at 2pm EDT/11 am PDT, so be sure to check back with us then. In the meantime, if you have any questions for the panel, ask them on Twitter or Google+ by marking them #WeTheGeeks.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/1998-qe2-moon/feed/3Asteroid 1998 QE2 Will Come So Close Tomorrow, Yet So Far Away - There's a giant asteroid that's going to be passing very near the Earth, but don't be alarmed. You'll be fine.http://www.themarysue.com/1998-qe2-close-pass/
http://www.themarysue.com/1998-qe2-close-pass/#commentsThu, 30 May 2013 20:30:56 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=153518A very large asteroid will pass very close to the Earth on Friday, but it's nothing to worry about. It's only close in astronomical terms, and poses no threat to our planet. So what's all the fuss about? The asteroid, dubbed 1998 QE2, will be a prime target for radar telescopes to study. Those of us with non-radar telescopes might be lucky enough to catch a dim glimpse.]]>

A very large asteroid will pass very close to the Earth on Friday, but it’s nothing to worry about. It’s only close in astronomical terms, and poses no threat to our planet. So what’s all the fuss about? The asteroid, dubbed 1998 QE2, will be a prime target for radar telescopes to study. Those of us with non-radar telescopes might be lucky enough to catch a dim glimpse.

1998 QE2 will make its closest pass to Earth tomorrow at 4:59 PM EDT at a distance of 3.6 million miles, or about 15 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Again — there’s no danger here. 1998 QE2 is big enough that if it were going to hit the Earth this whole post would be in caps, and I’d be screaming while I type it. That’s because the asteroid is about 1.7 miles wide.

NASA released a ScienceCast video today explaining the situation:

If that doesn’t answer all your questions about the asteroid, Dr. Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight Center Meteoroid Environment Office will be answering questions on NASA’s website tonight from 8:00 – 10:00 PM EDT. You can join the chat by following this link.

At least two radar telescopes will be trained on 1998 QE2 tomorrow — NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. They’ll both be examining 1998 QE2 not just at its closest pass, but will continue to do so through June 9th. They hope to get more detailed information about the asteroid, including detailed high-resolution images of surface details.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/1998-qe2-close-pass/feed/0Congress Doesn’t Care About Your Asteroid Plan, Would Rather Have a Moon Basehttp://www.themarysue.com/congress-proposes-moon-base/
http://www.themarysue.com/congress-proposes-moon-base/#commentsThu, 11 Apr 2013 16:20:18 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=146113
The White House's 2014 budget proposal includes funding for a NASA mission to park an asteroid in lunar orbit. Besides being awesome, the mission will also put humans farther into space than we've ever been. It might even help us develop ways to deflect asteroids that threaten to impact the Earth and kill everyone on it, but Congress doesn't care about any of that. Congress wants a Moon base.]]>

The White House’s 2014 budget proposal includes funding for a NASA mission to park an asteroid in lunar orbit. Besides being awesome, the mission will also put humans farther into space than we’ve ever been. It might even help us develop ways to deflect asteroids that threaten to impact the Earth and kill everyone on it, but Congress doesn’t care about any of that. Congress wants a Moon base.

Reasserting American Leadership in Space Act or REAL Space Act – Directs the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to plan to return to the Moon by 2022 and to develop a sustained human presence there in order to promote exploration, commerce, science, and U.S. preeminence in space as a stepping stone for future exploration of Mars and other destinations.

Having a permanent settlement on the Moon would almost certainly help achieve all the stated goals, but the problem is that if we keep shifting NASA’s focus, it’s never going to get anything done. NASA had intended to go back to the Moon by 2020, but the Obama administration called for missions to near-earth asteroids and Mars instead back in 2010.

We’re making progress on the asteroid capturing mission, and if we divert all NASA’s limited resources back to the Moon then it will be years before we start seeing progress on anything. Besides, the administrator of NASA Charles Bolden already stated that NASA will not be going back to the Moon any time soon. He said, “NASA is not going to the moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime. And the reason is, we can only do so many things.”

That’s not to say a permanent settlement on the Moon isn’t a worthwhile goal. Maybe we can compromise? How about we pull an asteroid into permanent lunar orbit, and then we build a base on that.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/congress-proposes-moon-base/feed/7Senator Announces NASA Project to Park Asteroid Near Our Moonhttp://www.themarysue.com/nasa-to-park-asteroid-near-moon/
http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-to-park-asteroid-near-moon/#commentsSun, 07 Apr 2013 15:00:35 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=145591
We first heard of the plan to capture a small asteroid and park it near our Moon, essentially giving our Moon a moon of its own, back in January, but now it seems all but official. Chairman of the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee, Senator Bill Nelson said on Friday President Obama will include $100 million in the 2014 budget for the asteroid project, calling it a "clever concept." I wonder what William Shatner will suggest we name it.]]>

We first heard of the plan to capture a small asteroid and park it near our Moon, essentially giving our Moon a moon of its own, back in January, but now it seems all but official. Chairman of the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee, Senator Bill Nelson said on Friday President Obama will include $100 million in the 2014 budget for the asteroid project, calling it a “clever concept.” I wonder what William Shatner will suggest we name it.

The $100 million proposed in the budget would go towards finding the right asteroid to capture. The goal is find one that is about 25-feet and 500-tons. There are conveniently thousands of asteroids that match that description, but the challenge will be in finding one that will be passing near enough to the Earth to make the mission possible.

After a suitable candidate asteroid is selected, a robotic spacecraft will be deployed in 2019 to lasso the asteroid and park it near our Moon. NASA’s Donald Yeomans, head of the Near Earth Object program, compared the method for capturing the asteroid to “a baggie with a drawstring.” The robotic craft will use solar propulsion to take the asteroid to the Moon.

Anyone concerned that a plan to bring an asteroid close to the Earth could go horribly, nightmarishly wrong can relax said Yeomans. An asteroid the size of the ones they’re targeting would burn up harmlessly in the Earth’s atmosphere should it escape.

The second part of the mission will see four astronauts spacewalk near the asteroid in 2021. There is already an existing plan to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing one closer to Earth, and this current proposal would help speed up that mission by four years, said Senator Nelson. It could also allow us to deflect potentially dangerous asteroids.

A government document outlining the plan said that the mission will inspire the nation because it will “send humans farther than they have ever been before.” Which, if I’m understanding the mission correctly, isn’t actually true. The plan is to bring an asteroid near the Moon, and we’ve already been there. Instead of going deeper into space, we’re just bringing deeper space closer to us. That’s still amazing, but we’re not really going any further than we’ve been before.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/nasa-to-park-asteroid-near-moon/feed/22Congress Might Have Doomed Us All to an Asteroid Apocalypse. Thanks, Guys. - It Came From Outer Spacehttp://www.themarysue.com/congress-nasa-budget-asteroid-apocalypse/
http://www.themarysue.com/congress-nasa-budget-asteroid-apocalypse/#commentsWed, 20 Mar 2013 18:00:51 +0000http://www.themarysue.com/?p=83147
The last few months have seen several asteroids unexpectedly buzz our planet, a fact that has caused a bit of concern for Congress. After all, while the chances of a catastrophic asteroid impact are tiny, if one does manage to hit us the effect could be pretty bad. Like, end of humanity bad. So it makes sense that Congress would want someone monitoring near-Earth asteroids just in case one should come barreling towards us.
Hmmm. Who does Congress have to turn to when they need someone to watch the skies?
NASA.
Whose budget has Congress drastically cut in recent years?
NASA.
You see where this is going.]]>

The last few months have seen several asteroids unexpectedly buzz our planet, a fact that has caused a bit of concern for Congress. After all, while the chances of a catastrophic asteroid impact are tiny, if one does manage to hit us the effect could be pretty bad. Like, end of humanity bad. So it makes sense that Congress would want someone monitoring near-Earth asteroids just in case one should come barreling towards us.

Hmmm. Who does Congress have to turn to when they need someone to watch the skies?

NASA.

Whose budget has Congress drastically cut in recent years?

NASA.

You see where this is going.

Back in 2005 Congress told NASA to “detect, track and characterize 90 percent” of near-Earth objects. John Holdren, President Obama‘s science advisor, estimates that there might be hundreds of thousands of them that we don’t even know about. But so far NASA’s only detected only 10% of near-Earth objects over 459 meters across.

In a Congressional hearing held yesterday, NASA chief Charles Bolden explained why. Turns out, Congress gave NASA a job but not the money they need to do said job. I’m sure they just forgot.

Said Bolden:

“Our estimate right now is at the present budget levels it will be 2030 before we’re able to reach the 90 percent level as prescribed by Congress. You all told us to do something, and between the administration and the Congress, the bottom line is the funding did not come…

The answer to you is, ‘if it’s coming in three weeks, pray. The reason I can’t do anything in the next three weeks is because for decades we have put it off.’

That was a NASA-level burn right there.

Jesus, Congress. Bruce Willis is almost 60. I’m not sure he’ll be able to save us from an incoming asteroid in, say, 2025. What are you doing?